Jones, Dan Henry V

Der perfekte König. Ein gnadenloses Leben

Henry was a child whom unexpected coincidences, a benevolent God, and a strict father, with years of meticulous care, molded into a king. When he finally ascended the English throne at the age of twenty-six, he exercised the office of kingship exactly as expected: tough on enemies and traitors, uncompromising in his demands on himself and others, steadfast in his faith, and unapproachable behind a mask of cool detachment, through which, in rare moments of calm, an artistic side shone. In the cold February of 1400, a boy walked behind the coffin of Richard II, bitterly questioning his father's decision. Why did Richard have to die? Was mercy not an option? This thirteen-year-old would one day be King of England, revered by his contemporaries, and later immortalized in literature by Shakespeare. Henry V was the statesman who understood better than anyone else of his time how to assert himself on the international stage. He is the king who, with a keen sense for the fragile relationship between monarch and people, maintains domestic harmony. He is the nerveless general who inflicts a historic defeat on France at the Battle of Agincourt and fulfills the English dream of the French crown. Fate is on his side until an infection accomplishes what many before him have tried in vain: Henry V dies at only thirty-five years old. What if?